obama

Romney thumped Newt Gingrich in Nevada and rather than do an election night rally, Gingrich decided to do a press conference instead, which was obviously to convince the press that he really, really was going to stay in the race, really.

The more Gingrich says, “We will go to Tampa,” the more I think he is trying to convince himself.  He compared himself to Reagan in the 1976 GOP nomination, I’m not sure anyone sees it the same way, and that was the year Reagan lost.

Gingrich is a smart and visionary guy, but he is his own worst enemy.  It is also clear that he truly despises Mitt Romney, and that could create a real poisonous atmosphere as Gingrich gets more desperate to be relevant.  Going on about Romney being “substantially dishonest” is not going to make the unity effort any easier later on.

Senator Orrin Hatch went to the Senate floor to express his disappointment in President Obama for politicizing his speech at the National Prayer Breakfast yesterday.

Here is how The Hill reports it:

Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) on Thursday evening said President Obama needs a reminder that he is not Jesus Christ.

“In 2008, the president declared that his nomination was the world historical moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal,” Hatch said in a speech from the Senate floor. 

“Someone needs to remind the president that there was only one person who walked on water and he did not occupy the Oval Office.”

Hatch skewered the president for a remark he made at the National Prayer Breakfast on Thursday morning, during which he suggested Jesus might support his plan to raise taxes on wealthy Americans.

“For me as a Christian, it also coincides with Jesus’s teaching that ‘for unto to whom much is given, much shall be required,’” Obama said at the breakfast.

Hatch, who is a devout Mormon, suggested Obama was trying to “assume the role of theologian in chief” and said he ought to stick to public policy.

“[Obama] suggested to the attendees that Jesus would have supported his latest tax-the-rich schemes,” Hatch said. “With due respect to the president, he ought to stick to public policy. I think most Americans would agree that the gospels are concerned with weightier matters than effective tax rates.”

You can see Hatch’s on C-SPAN here.

Conn Carroll at Washington Examiner has a very interesting piece based on this study by Gallup.  It shows that if the election were held now, and correlated with Obama’s approval/disapproval rating, the Republican candidate would get a whopping 323 Electoral College votes.

Oh, that it were that simple.  However, approval ratings this far out from Election Day are far from good indicators of what will happen after the President starts campaigning in earnest and Mitt Romney officially secures the nomination and becomes a punching bag of the left.

The good news – Obama’s folks can’t be very happy about where he stands with the American people – and it’s evident that his State of the Union hasn’t done much to give him a bump in the numbers.  Mr. President, they’re just not that into you.

Romney’s solid win in Florida effectively ends the GOP nomination.  Romney is firmly in the driver’s seat, and while Ron Paul will continue to collect delegates for the next month or so, Gingrich and Santorum are essentially done.

The next two big primaries are Michigan and Arizona, both of which Romney will win in a big way, giving him the “big Mo” going into Super Tuesday.

It’s time for Republicans to coalesce behind Romney and focus on beating President Obama in November.

Mitt Romney is on track to wrap up the GOP nomination with a win on Tuesday in Florida.  He had a strong performance in Thursday’s debate and polls out today show him up anywhere between eight and 11 points over Newt Gingrich.

This turnaround demonstrates that he can get the job down, something that will serve him well going into a General Election against President Obama.

As Gingrich enjoyed his surge and win in South Carolina, political observers speculated that he would eventually implode. What worried most GOP operatives was that the implosion would come after he secured the Republican nomination.  As if on cue, he promptly began to sink, and Romney again surged just in time for the Florida primary.

While it has been messy, the process has made Romney a better candidate and better prepared to face the onslaught that awaits him from the Democrats.

After Romney wins Florida, it will be nearly impossible for Santorum or Gingrich to make the case to stay in the race.  Ron Paul will stay in, because he continues to raise enough money to plod along, and he may even do pretty well in some of the upcoming caucuses (Maine, Nevada, Colorado and Minnesota) but Romney will more than likely win the Arizona and Michigan primaries, and he will be an unstoppable force going into Super Tuesday.

It’s been a wild ride – and it’s not quite over, but there are likely very few surprises that can happen now.

Words don’t matter here.

Obama visits the Phoenix area today, and according to this report, thousands of workers involved in the expansion of the Intel facility the President is visiting are taking a forced, non-paid day off.

This was an interesting part of the story:

But some workers — who put in six, ten-hour days every week — disagree. Several expressed their frustration over losing out on 20 percent of their paycheck.

“[The president] is here to talk about jobs and the economy and yet he’s forcing middle-class people right out of work for a day,” said a worker who contacted KTAR. “We’re losing an overtime day. It hurts.”

Consider that, President Obama… it hurts.

Obama told some real whoppers in is State of the Union address. Here are just a few:

This country needs an all-out, all-of-the-above strategy that develops every available source of American energy – a strategy that’s cleaner, cheaper, and full of new jobs.

C’mon, do you really expect us to believe that you support an “all of the above” strategy less than a week after you strike down the Keystone pipeline?  Get serious.

On clean energy – in particular, Solyndra, he said this:

Some technologies don’t pan out; some companies fail. But I will not walk away from the promise of clean energy. I will not walk away from workers like Bryan. I will not cede the wind or solar or battery industry to China or Germany because we refuse to make the same commitment here. We have subsidized oil companies for a century. That’s long enough. It’s time to end the taxpayer giveaways to an industry that’s rarely been more profitable, and double-down on a clean energy industry that’s never been more promising. Pass clean energy tax credits and create these jobs.

Really?  There are already more tax credits for “clean” energy than any other form of energy.  To ask Congress to pass MORE tax credits and incentives – while billions of tax-payer dollars have been wasted, is irresponsible.

Speaking of taxes:

Right now, we’re poised to spend nearly $1 trillion more on what was supposed to be a temporary tax break for the wealthiest 2 percent of Americans. Right now, because of loopholes and shelters in the tax code, a quarter of all millionaires pay lower tax rates than millions of middle-class households. Right now, Warren Buffett pays a lower tax rate than his secretary.

First off, does he really argue that the government SPENDS money on tax breaks? That is a typical Democrat talking point, as if it’s THEIR money to begin with. Secondly, Obama is purposely trying to confuse the American people by not acknowledging the difference between “earned” income and “unearned” income.  Warren Buffet doesn’t take a salary – so he doesn’t have “earned” income.  He has enough wealth that he can live on his investments and interest.  Those are called capital gains.  The capital gains tax rate is 15%, for good reason – because it is capital gains that fund new businesses, which in turn grow the economy.  If Obama actually doubles the tax rate on capital gains, economic growth will grind to a halt.  This is a cynical attempt to engage in class warfare, while trying to claim that it isn’t class warfare.

Obama continues:

But in return, we need to change our tax code so that people like me, and an awful lot of Members of Congress, pay our fair share of taxes. Tax reform should follow the Buffett rule: If you make more than $1 million a year, you should not pay less than 30 percent in taxes. And my Republican friend Tom Coburn is right: Washington should stop subsidizing millionaires. In fact, if you’re earning a million dollars a year, you shouldn’t get special tax subsidies or deductions. On the other hand, if you make under $250,000 a year, like 98 percent of American families, your taxes shouldn’t go up. You’re the ones struggling with rising costs and stagnant wages. You’re the ones who need relief.

Notice his crafty addition of the word “earning” when he is talking about people who are millionaires?  He knows, as well as anyone, that people who are “earning” millions are paying a much higher rate than the 15% of unearned income. They don’t get special subsidies or deductions – it just may be that their deductions are higher because they give more to charity, etc.

Obama continues again:

Now, you can call this class warfare all you want. But asking a billionaire to pay at least as much as his secretary in taxes? Most Americans would call that common sense.

They only call that common sense when you confuse earned income with unearned income.

And here is the biggest whopper of the night:

We don’t begrudge financial success in this country. We admire it. When Americans talk about folks like me paying my fair share of taxes, it’s not because they envy the rich. It’s because they understand that when I get tax breaks I don’t need and the country can’t afford, it either adds to the deficit, or somebody else has to make up the difference – like a senior on a fixed income; or a student trying to get through school; or a family trying to make ends meet. That’s not right.

What’s not right, Mr. President, is for you to demagogue taxes in a way that is cynical and anti-productivity.

It’s sad that the President of the United States cannot be honest with the American people.

This is an interesting take on tonight’s State of the Union.  A group called American Future Fund owns the domain: TheRealStateOfTheUnion.com .  Interestingly, TheRealStateOfTheUnion.org is owned by the Democrat Congressional Campaign Committee.

Here is a new ad from American Future Fund: